University of Szeged (Hungary)

Our group is working on and making research about the framework of Responsible Innovation (RRI) since about 10 years. During this time, we learned a lot and get a lot of knowledge about working with different disciplines and researchers from different fields, and about socio-technical integration. We are also experienced what factors can influence the social acceptance of a technology, and how to bring science and technology closer to the public. Public engagement is also a crucial element of RRI and we have experience about how to involve stakeholders and the public into the creation of innovation outputs. The concept of responsible innovation has common elements with Public Interest Technology, thus we could take advantage of our experience on this field and we can become active and useful members of the PIT network.

The main added value of our work that can also support the work of the network is twofold. i) On the one hand, we are economists and our experience is that in the number of economists among experts of this field (RRI and PIT) is quite low, thus our knowledge and expertise can significantly contribute to the increase of the knowledge base of the network. We are currently working on how to bring closer innovation activities of the companies to the expectation of the public, in order to be able to produce socially desirable products. To achieve this, we use the economic point of view. ii) On the other hand, we have also great experience about how PIT could work in the less developed, post-socialist innovation environment. We have conducted several pilot actions and research in post-socialist countries; thus we know very well the main characteristics of these countries, that can help or hold back the process of bringing closer the different disciplines and the public interest with the innovation and technology initiatives.

Dr. Miklós Lukovics, Professor, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration